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| [ PHOTO: NEW YORK POST ] |
September 13, 2018
Peter Solari, Editor-in-Chief Follow @4PeteSakeNY
It's time to sound the panic alarms in the Bronx!
The Yankees' bats went silent, and their struggles against sub-par competition continued on Wednesday night as New York was no hit through 7 and 1/3 by Jake Odorizzi, and fell to the Twins 3-1 in the rubber match of a three game series at Target Field in Minnesota.
The loss, combined with Oakland's 10-0 thrashing of the Orioles, drops New York's lead for the top wild card spot to just one game over the red-hot A's.
The @Athletics are just 1 game behind the Yankees in the race to host the AL Wild Card Game 👀 pic.twitter.com/XwWohHCkSe— FOX Sports (@FOXSports) September 13, 2018
The lone bright spot for New York was hard-luck loser Luis Severino (17-8, 3.46 ERA), who delivered, arguably, his best performance of the second half, going 5 and 2/3 innings, while giving up one run on four hits and striking out five. Severino and battery-mate, Gary Sanchez, were also able to avoid the wild pitch/passed ball issues that haunted them last week in Oakland.
While Aaron Boone can be optimistic about Severino turning the corner, the rookie manager still finds himself in a world of trouble as his club is on the verge of blowing a wild-card lead that seemed insurmountable not too long ago.
The Yankees have an off-day Thursday before entering the final stretch of their regular season, where they'll play their final 16 games against division rivals. That gets started on Friday when Masahiro Tanaka (11-5, 3.61 ERA) and the Bronx Bombers open a nine game home-stand against the Toronto Blue Jays. The team will play its final seven games of the regular season on the road.
